Compaq recovery cds???

[NYorkrider]

hey, I have a compaq and I must have deleted something becuase now all that shows up when I start up my computer is my wallpaper with no icons but i can press ctrl alt delete and run a new task from there. So I was looking around and found the compaq recovery on my desktop which looked like a road sign with a black arrow pointing left I think so I ran it and I had to burn 6 cds for the recovery and now when I put in the first disc it says preload and I386 and there is nothing under preload but under I386 there is a bunch of stuff but no matter what I do it wont run the recovery and fix my computer.
can someone please help
thanks

[NYorkrider]

noone knows?

[Cain]

in this case i believe that youre recovery cd is not bootable or is dependant on a
your system at least in safe mode. Try to log in as the user you burned the cds
as and then recover the system through the backup utility you initially used to
burn the cds with.

try searching for related threads in daniweb. you may beable to repair your
desktop without initiating a recovery. or hit this thread..

http://daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread28765.html

enjoy,
Cain

[NYorkrider]

the site that zeroth posted didnt work for me :(

[Cain]

who knows what has gone on.. this problem seems to be more and more previlant as time goes on with more and more people, but it certainly isnt
new...

here are two more sites that may help:

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win98/t1042787721
http://forums.thatcomputerguy.us/index.php?showtopic=14833&pid=89137&st=0&#entry89137

[kc0arf]

Hello,

The newer Compaq Presarios that are coming out "feature" a hidden hard drive partition to restore the machine to factory settings. As an advanced user, it annoyed the hell out of me that I could not partition the computer and install a bare-bones system as desired.

The computer had a program hanging off of the Start menu to burn a set of recovery CD's or DVD's.

I made them, and then proceeded to re-format the drive only to find out that Compaq does not support the creation of partitions in the recovery process. The online help fella was not able to provide me a way around this, and actually suggested that I bring the machine in for repair.

Christian

[NYorkrider]

it looks like the solution is ot reinstall winxp, does anyone know where I can get a windows xp disc? I cant find the one that came with my computer
thanks

[Catweazle]

Be best to mention the specific model of Compaq PC you have, so more specific advice can be given. Compaqs do not come with a Windows CD. Windows and preinstalled software are loaded from the recovery CD or partition.

There will certainly be a method of reloading your PC back to its original factory state

[Cain]

most often you can contact the vendor and they will send you an inital install/recovery
package for free. I cant say about compaq for sure.. but I know that Dell and HP do it
and have done it frequently for me. I call tech support and tell them what my
model/serial number is and they just send me some cd's out in 3-5 buisness days.

[NYorkrider]

ok, I'll do that thx

[hp/compaqdave]

most often you can contact the vendor and they will send you an inital install/recovery
package for free. I cant say about compaq for sure.. but I know that Dell and HP do it
and have done it frequently for me. I call tech support and tell them what my
model/serial number is and they just send me some cd's out in 3-5 buisness days.

DO NOT CONTACT VENDOR,THEY WILL NOT HAVE RECOVERY CD'S.CONTACT COMPAQ/HP SUPPORT AT 1-800-HPINVENT,AND TELL THEM YOUR CREATED SET OF RECOVERY CD'S HAVE FAILED AND WE WILL SEND YOU OUT A FACTORY SET FOR FREE!

[NYorkrider]

I called hp and asked them if they could send me a recovery cd and they said it would cost me 23 dollars!!!!! where are you guys getting these things lol, doe anyone want ot be nice enough to send me one? and howcome noone at hp speaks english? I can never understand them!

[Cain]

23 bucks is pretty cheap for an out of print os & driver package. you bought it right?
I would have.

To answer your second question

and howcome noone at hp speaks english? I can never understand them!

Outsourcing. This is probably also the reason you can get your recovery cds for 23$ instead of 230$

[TruckrDude]

try ebay.

[TruckrDude]

if ur going to partition and format the hard drive urself u'll need a seperate windows disc then the recovery discs that came with the computer.

[BILL S]

Hello,

The newer Compaq Presarios that are coming out "feature" a hidden hard drive partition to restore the machine to factory settings. As an advanced user, it annoyed the hell out of me that I could not partition the computer and install a bare-bones system as desired.

The computer had a program hanging off of the Start menu to burn a set of recovery CD's or DVD's.

I made them, and then proceeded to re-format the drive only to find out that Compaq does not support the creation of partitions in the recovery process. The online help fella was not able to provide me a way around this, and actually suggested that I bring the machine in for repair.

Christian

I own a Presario SR1220NX and am thinking the upgrade may be to the SR1750NX (IIRC; AMD powered, 100+GB HDD)
What timelines are we mentioning? I also picked up an old but still good Deskpro with a 370 CPU socket for $26
Why not swap a fresh HDD formatted as you prefer?
Bill

I'm intrigued with the recovery disks as I have my own with the SR1220... My buddy says you can use recovery disks to install on another non-related machine and I thought I had heard if brand matches it may work, but as this tend to go against the ever-strict EULAs, I shouldn't go there, eh?

On that subject for one second, don't you agree a one license per-family/household is better then 1 machine any day!?!?!?

..and I was clicking on related brands.. only just noticing the date these came in...nice it's so obvious! haha

[suRoot]

when you do the Ctrl alt delete, go to the run option and type in explorer this should bring up your start menu and icons i do believe? then if that works

open the file win.ini (start>run>"win.ini") and add [Windows] and on the next line Path=C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.exe

This should load up explorer when the computer loads..

Add it to the end of the file

[BILL S]

Well, during several swaps which I have thought out as each one involves reconstructing driver and software protocals, I found XP on a recovery formatted SR1220NX Compaq Presario which I am now using at present again, would only hang while booting past POST on a Compaq DeskPro that has a Celeron equipped Socket 370 board with 4 PCI slots, it also is short on wire harness, but seems able to connect two CD/DVD, Floppy and has an additional floppy sized slot above the HDD area, but the full length slot extended case for the floppy won't allow a full size drive due to flanges for a low profile chassis that still fits a standard CD space... I'm thinking a card reader may work here though, if a floppy can be moved down. I'm setting this PC up as a spare with likely 256MB to start and a 133MHz 370PGA 1GHz or higher Pentium3, if it will work,.. Can I tell if the BIOS seems to not report this? I've been told it's pretty much hit and miss and Pentium swaps to a Celeron board work much better then vice-versa. I think a 1GHz at 100MHz FSB should work on all these boards. I also noted a 1.3 GHz or so Celeron which somewhat suprised me... given the P4 takes over at 1.4 Gig speeds.
The other thing I did find is a re-installed copy of my Emachine's included Windows ME OS has worked in several older computers after being setup in the original PC... Though this is not intended, For my own personal use, I am able to use the extended A/V capabilities it includes... My problem now is a 2000 dated BookPC only mentions use of Win95 and 98, but Win ME has loaded in a safe mode, looking for several drivers I would otherwise have on an included CD ROM... Will have to hunt a remedy for this.
I'm getting away from the original post, so I'll leave it at that for now, Any ideas for book PC drivers, the model seems to be the brand on the incl. instructions but I seem to recall AOpen and PChips, Amptron (IIRC) were a couple making this compact systems.
BILL

[zzn2323]

go to compaq presario help page and they list a step by step how to reboot your computer when you have errors.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/siteHomeC?lc=en&cc=us

hope this helps

[toolazy2work]

when you boot and press control alt delete, go to file, run/open new task. In that box, type "explorer.exe". That should load your desktop and start bar. From there, back up your data, burn new recovery cds and try to reload.
Hope this helps,
Nick

[mgriebe]

You can find a lot of HP Compaq Recovery CDs that are out of print at http://www.computersurgeons.com/shoppingcart/mainpage.htm

Excellent resource